


Although A Tear, Might Be Ever So Near...

by Cerasinus



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Corvo has blood on his hands but that doesn't mean he can't be a good person, Gen, Low Chaos Corvo Attano
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 06:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18987175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerasinus/pseuds/Cerasinus
Summary: Corvo Attano could have been many things after Jessamine died. A broken man, an agent of death, the Loyalist Conspiracy’s weapon.Could have been.Instead, he chose a path out of chaos. Not… Mercy, but some phantasm of justice.In time – too much time, that horrific heart would sometimes whisper to him – he was rewarded for his choice. Even if he didn’t know it.(Or - a short character study, of sorts, of a Low-Chaos Corvo Attano, who has blood on his hands from deeds past, but still tries to make his love proud)





	Although A Tear, Might Be Ever So Near...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ExultedShores](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExultedShores/gifts).



> This one is for ExultedShores, for no other reason than the best one - she has been the best friend I could ever ask for and means so very much to me.
> 
> Title from the wonderful song 'Smile' by Jimmy Durante

The thing is, Jessamine Kaldwin was his whole damned _world_.

None – bar Emily – ever seemed to understand that. Corvo had still felt like such a young man when he first saw her, a vision of beauty, grace, and strength even then. Their love felt like a foregone conclusion, something that only they (and perhaps Sokolov) saw coming that Fugue Feast night.

She held him so _close_ – closer than an Empress should be to her Royal Protector, many said, for a woman in leadership had to be everything and nothing at the same time – always, from that first Fugue Feast night to Emily’s birth. That convinced Corvo that Emily was his long before anything else ever did.

Jessamine always held him close.

And then, she died. An assassin’s blade in her heart.

“ _Corvo… It’s all… Coming apart..”_

 

(She held him close then, too

It took a sword’s hilt to his head to make him leave her there for a single second)

His world was dead. Corvo became a ghost. He only really left Coldridge for Emily.

(He was a ghost to those guards, too)

 

Corvo met Samuel. Met the Loyalists. Was given a mask and told to be their weapon.

(He never really _was_ , though)

He was told to assassinate Campbell, so he branded him instead. Told to kill the Pendleton brothers, so he let Slackjaw put them in their own miserable mine.

(Later, he would expose Burrows’ plans for all to hear, and give Lady Boyle to a very bad man.

He didn’t tell that man that he gave Lady Boyle a knife. Or three)

 

It wasn’t about _mercy_. Corvo had buried so many enemies in his time. It was about _Jessamine_.

She was a woman of mercy and a woman of justice, and injustice killed her.

If you replace injustice with injustice, death with death, when does your own _very_ justified death find you? When does goodness, your goodness, die?

It wasn’t about mercy. Corvo simply refused to tarnish his love’s legacy.

(When he held Emily in his arms again… That was when he actually started to believe it)

 

People betrayed him, of course. The three that defined the Loyalists used Samuel to kill him.

(He forgave Samuel. He’d killed to survive, once upon a time)

 

Corvo Attano could have been many things after Jessamine died. A broken man, an agent of death, the Loyalist Conspiracy’s weapon.

Could have been.

Instead, he chose a path _out_ of chaos. Not… Mercy, but some phantasm of justice.

In time – _too much time_ , that horrific heart would sometimes whisper to him – he was rewarded for his choice. Even if he didn’t know it.

Holding Emily, first in the Golden Cat and much later at the place their beloved died. Was killed.

(He spared Daud, too. His own guilt was already killing him enough.)

 

He held Emily close again those many years later, when he was turned to stone and then awoke a second but yet months later, seeing her holding out a hand to him, praying that he was still alive.

"Father!" She said, hugging him tightly, and Corvo learned much of her journey in the days that followed.

Corvo Attano looked down to his daughter, The Empress, covered in grime and bruises. He looked to her eyes and knew that she, unlike him at her age, did not yet have blood on her hands and bodies to bury.

_Yes_ , Corvo thought, holding his daughter close once again.

_This is rewarding enough._

**Author's Note:**

> 'Character study' type stories are quite a challenge in my mind. You are writing from a specific perspective with, in my case, little plot and trying to make it interesting. I hope I succeeded.
> 
> M - I hope you like this story of Corvo's little... Redemption? I'm not quite sure what this little story is, but it was something. Reversing my usual Corvo was fun...


End file.
